Isil releases new video of 2014 Speicher massacre of Shia army recruits

The extremist group are believed to have killed 1,700 soldiers and now a new
video shows the victims lying ready for execution in pits

Iraqi soldiers carry coffins containing the remains of ten of their comrades who were killed in the Speicher massacre during their funeral procession in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf earlier this monthPhoto: AFP

Around 600 bodies have been located to date, with mass graves revealing corpses lain several layers’ deep.

The massacre has been seared on the collective consciousness of Iraq’s Shia population. Many situate the atrocity within a longer history of suffering at the hands of Sunni supremacists and the Baathist regime of former president Saddam Hussein.

Combined with a call by the country's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to take up arms, the Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shia volunteers to fight the jihadists.

A coalition of mostly Shia militias known as the Hashed al-Sha’abi are leading the counter-attack against Isil in Sunni-majority Anbar province. Isil seized Anbar’s capital Ramadi two months ago, extending its control over the Euphrates River Valley west of Baghdad and dealing a major blow to the government.

The Hashed launched an offensive to retake the Anbar city of Fallujah last week, but faced stiff resistance from Isil fighters.

Fallujah saw the fiercest fighting of the US occupation which followed Washington’s 2003 invasion to topple Hussein, and has also been a centre of Sunni hostility to the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

The empowerment of the Hashed as a fighting force has left Sunni communities across the country on edge, with many fearful that they will now face revenge attacks.

The rise of Islamic State: timeline

Fall of Raqqa

March 6 2013

Raqqa in Syria falls to Isil, becoming the de facto capital of the jihadists’ embryonic state

Fall of Mosul

June 10 2014

Mosul in northern Iraq falls to Isil, becoming its second de facto capital. Half a million people escape on foot or by car in just two days

Camp Speicher massacre

June 12 2014

Isil kills at least 1566 Iraqi air force cadets as it attacks Camp Speicher, near the city of Tikrit

Fall of Tikrit

June 30 2014

Tikrit in Iraq, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, falls to Isil

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) lead away captured Iraqi soldiers in Tikrit (AP)

Isil declares an 'Islamic Caliphate'

June 29 2014

The group proclaims
itself a caliphate, naming Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as its leader, or caliph. Changes name to Islam

Yazidis flee into Sinjar mountains

August 3 2014

Isil captures the northern Iraqi cities of Zuman, Sinjar and Wana. Thousands of
Yazidis flee into

US humanitarian mission

August 7 2014

US launches humanitarian mission to prevent a massacre of the Yazidis

Thousands of Yezidis were forced to flee into the Sinjar mountains (GETTY IMAGES)

US bombing campaign begins

August 8 2014

US begins aerial bombing campaign in Iraq

Murder of James Foley

August 19 2014

Isil releases video showing the first beheading of a western hostage, American journalist
James Foley